Gov. Rick Perry formally suspended his presidential campaign on Thursday, Jan. 19, and threw his support to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich for the Republican nomination.

Perry’s departure comes three days before the crucial South Carolina primary, which has become a hotly contested race between front-runner Mitt Romney and Gingrich, with Rick Santorum and Ron Paul vying for the third spot. Perry had been lagging in last place with about 5 percent of the vote in the latest polls.

Perry has struggled since coming in a disappointing fifth place in the Iowa caucuses and then placing near the bottom in the New Hampshire primary. After nearly dropping out of the race after Iowa, Perry decided to forge ahead and focus on the South Carolina contest. But when conservative evangelical leaders meeting in Brenham, Texas, last week chose to skip over Perry and endorse Santorum for the nomination, it seemed to have left Perry with few options.

"I believe Newt is a conservative visionary who can transform our country," Perry said at a news conference Thursday. "We've had our differences, which campaigns inevitably have, and Newt is not perfect, but who among us is?"

Perry went on to say that he rarely backs down from a fight, but that he had learned from the greatest Texas governor, Sam Houston, that sometimes it is necessary to make a strategic retreat.

Rice University political scientist Mark Jones says despite his failed presidential campaign, Perry will continue to be the most powerful and influential political actor in Texas.

"Though over the past five months he proved unable to hit major league pitching, he still possesses all of the skills that have allowed him to dominate the Texas league for the past decade," Jones says. "These considerable abilities, combined with a vast network of loyal appointees, former appointees, aides and supporters embedded throughout state government, lobbying firms and the private sector, ensure that Perry will continue to be a force to be reckoned with during the final three years of his present term in office."

Perry is the longest-serving governor in Texas’ history whose current term does not expire until the end of 2014.

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